The Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) has released results for the June 2 Canadian sitting of the FPSC Level 1 Examination in Financial Planning and the CFP examination.

More than 500 candidates wrote the four-hour FPSC Level 1 examination, and 70% passed. Of the 509 candidates who wrote the exam, 401 were first-time writers (74% pass rate), while 108 were reattempting the exam (55% pass rate).

On the same day, 436 people wrote the six-hour CFP examination, the final exam on the path to CFP certification, with an overall pass rate of 63%. Of the candidates, 325 were first-time writers (74% pass rate), and 111 were reattempting the exam (32% pass rate).

Candidates can attempt each exam a maximum of four times, and must be successful within four years of completing the applicable educational prerequisite, explains an FPSC spokesperson. “If they are unsuccessful after four attempts and/or four years, they must retake the education prerequisite. That will qualify them for up to four more attempts at the exam, subject to the four-year time limit.”

Successful CFP exam candidates may only apply for CFP certification after completing three years of qualifying financial planning work experience. There are approximately 17,000 CFPs across Canada and more than 170,000 around the world.

I find the way that you present the information in this article is a little misleading. The headline seems to indicate that it is not difficult to get your certification with FPSC. However, if you do the math, this examination process remains very rigorous with just under a 52% success rate.

Start with 100 students. 70% of those pass on the first time. That leaves you with 70 students. They write the second exam and 74% of those pass. You are left with about 51.8% of writers of the combined two examinations passing on the first round.

With the headline as it is, it seems like the examination process is getting more easy to pass. I think with the dual examination, this process is still just as difficult as it has always been.

Whereas your article does not do this analysis, its headline, to this reader at least, may mislead candidates into thinking this is a “cakewalk”. It most definitely is not.